Featured Lesson

Finger Independence Exercises Part 1

In this lesson we will start an exploration of finger independence exercises for the fretting hand. In Part 1 we will start with simple chromatics and end on a tricky 4 finger independence exercise. Part 2 will follow to elaborate on these concepts.

To start with, revise the left and right hand techniques as described on this site. See the Technique section. Remember to use alternate picking for all the exercises, use your metronome and play 8th notes at a steady tempo. Relax your hands, and strive for accuracy and consistency.

Then, lets get started:

Exercise 1 is the classic chromatic 4 fingers to a string exercise. Start with your index finger in the first fret of the low E string. Play that note, then use your  middle finger on the second fret, and so on. Once your little finger has played the note on the 4th fret, move your index finger to the second fret, and repeat the 1,2,3,4 pattern.
The pattern looks like this:


Ex. 1

Exercise 2 builds on Ex. 1 and expands the pattern across all the strings. The index finger leads in going from string to string, and the 1,2,3,4 pattern repeats across the strings. Pay attention to the string crosses here with the picking hand.

Ex. 2

Exercise 3 is the reverse movement of Ex. 2 with the index finger leading and crossing the strings from thinnest to thickest

Ex. 3

Exercise 4 follows the same principles as Ex. 2, but this time with the pinky finger leading.

Ex. 4

Exercise 5 simply reverses the movement of Ex. 4

Ex. 5

Exercise 6 starts us off with a tricky exercise in finger independence using these 4 finger "chromatic" type ideas. Watch the timing here, keep the note durations even, as well as the rests between notes.

Ex. 6

That's all for now. Look out for the next article in the series, coming soon to Trueguitar.com

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